Chapter Eleven #2
“I can do this,” she whispered to herself, clutching her purse closer as she slowly walked to the first row of cars with sale stickers on the front windows.
“Hi,” a blond-haired guy called, jogging toward her from the office building.
He wore slacks and button-up shirt, and a very white smile. “I’m Toby,” he introduced himself.
“Delta.”
“Nice to meet you, Delta. Are you looking for anything in particular?”
“Umm…” She squinted at the rows of cars. “Something older but dependable, that can get me around in the snow.”
He nodded and looked around thoughtfully. “Is there a budget you are trying to stay under?”
She told him a budget, but it was a couple thousand less than her actual budget, thinking perhaps he would negotiate more easily with her if she had room to move a little. He was human so he couldn’t hear her fib.
“Follow me,” he said. “I think I have a couple options you might be happy with.”
For the next fifteen minutes, he took her to a few different rigs and explained the pros of them, letting her sit behind the wheels. He offered for her to do test drives, but she didn’t like them. They just didn’t feel like the right ones. One was a minivan, and two were little cars.
She thanked him, but they weren’t for her. He offered to take her inside and try to track down a better option at one of their other lots, and as she followed him inside, he took her right past a row of used cars parked near the building.
A black, jacked up, old 4Runner was backed in right near the office door. She would’ve thought it was one of the worker’s cars if it weren’t for the piece of paper taped to the front window.
“What’s that one?” she asked, pointing.
Toby followed the direction of where she pointed, and his eyes lit up with surprise. “Uuuh, that might be a lucky break. Do you believe in things happening for a reason?”
She huffed a laugh. “You’re a salesguy. You have to say stuff like that.”
“No, no, no,” he chanted as he led her to the old 4Runner. “Keagan’s girlfriend just brought this rig in. He works here. We don’t even have it checked in all the way yet. His lady traded it in for a newer car with heated seats.”
“I don’t need heated seats.” Werewolves didn’t get cold like humans did. She walked around it slowly. It had damage on the back right side, like the last owner had backed into a pole or something and never got it buffered out, but that was okay. “Does it run well?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Keagan is inside if you want to ask him questions about it. Wait right here, and I’ll go grab him.”
“Okay.”
“It’s unlocked if you want to sit in it,” Toby called as he jogged away.
She would just wait for them to come back. Sitting in it without supervision felt like breaking rules.
Delta waited for another minute, wringing her hands, and then muttered, “Fuck it,” and made her way to the driver’s side door.
She pulled it open and scented the truck.
It smelled like a woman’s fruity lotion.
Good. The seats were in charcoal gray cloth, and at some point, the last owner had put Apple Car Play in the car, meaning she could just plug in her phone and pull up the maps function, or see the music she wanted to play.
Okay, that was unexpected and awesome. She bet it had a backup camera too.
Delta adjusted the seat and then gripped the worn steering wheel. It felt good in her hands.
She studied the buttons and poked the lock and unlock buttons to make sure those were working. This rig had all the bells and whistles she would want. She really didn’t care that it didn’t have heated seats. She would never use them anyway.
“Hey there,” a dark-haired guy greeted her. Toby followed closely behind him. “I hear you’re interested in this truck.”
“Yeah, she’s cute. How much?”
“Well, we haven’t even got a price tag on it yet. My lady just traded it in a few hours ago. It was her baby. All the oil changes were done on time, and all the maintenance was taken care of right away. It’s a good rig.”
Good. The rig had sentimental value. She could work with that.
She told him her budget, the lower one, and asked, “Can you work with that? I’ll be paying cash.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. This thing has been babied.”
She nodded. “Fair enough. Thank you for your time.”
She moved to get out, but the new guy, Keagan, held his hands out.
“Hold up. Let me at least try. Let me talk to my boss on some numbers while you take it out for a test drive. Like Toby probably told you, we haven’t even finished checking it in and cleaning it out.
Cars don’t usually get picked up this fast. Let me catch up and see what I can do.
Do you need the rig today? Or can you wait a couple of days for us to do everything we need to do to get it sale ready? ”
“Today. You could save yourself the hassle and just offload a car. You could make an easy sale if you take my budget seriously.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Cash, huh?”
“Yep.”
“I like you,” he said, pointing as he backed away. “You are a no nonsense kind of person.”
“Tell your boss that. Tell him it’ll be an easy sale if he can keep us from the back and forth.”
God where had she got this boldness? She wasn’t even good at talking to people in general, and now she was telling these strangers what to do?
She gripped the wheel to hide the shaking in her hands.
Toby asked for her driver’s license, and then he handed her the keys and hopped in the passenger’s seat.
She loved this rig. She knew she loved it the second she pushed the gas pedal down.
It was louder than she’d envisioned, and it was fast. The hitch on the back said it had enough power to tow a trailer too, which was awesome.
She would have no problem getting up hills in this thing.
There was no creaking or squeaking. The heat worked well, the gears shifted easily as she accelerated, and it breezed up a hill to the first red light.
Brakes were great. She took it around for fifteen minutes before she returned to the lot and parked it.
That had been so freaking fun. It had been a while since she’d driven anything but Nathan’s truck, and even that was only on occasion.
Keagan came out to meet them with a piece of paper in his hand. His face did not look happy.
“Bad news?” she guessed, her heart sinking.
“Look, I talked to my boss and told him we need to come up with the best offer out the gate, and this is the number he won’t budge on.
I like the idea of the car going to someone cool.
My lady loved this rig and will be happy too.
This number covers what we paid for the rig and the processing fees, and five hundred dollars for our cut.
We have to make some money on it, you know? ”
She looked at the number and tried not to smile. It was only fifteen hundred dollars over the budget she’d told them. No, it wasn’t a lower mileage, newer Ford Ranger, but she could buy this rig on her own, with no one’s help.
She blew out a long breath of air and then looked up at Keagan. “You’re sure you can’t do any better than this?”
“I mean, we can throw in a tank of gas. We can detail it for you before you drive it off, but if you can come up with the difference, you can literally take this 4Runner off the lot and take it home.”
Home. Home to Rogue Pack territory. This truck would have no problem getting to the cabin from here. The cabin had been step one to independence, and this was step two.
She looked up at Keagan and offered her hand for a shake. “Deal.”